Marley Dance Flooring Buying Guide

Find the best vinyl marley dance flooring rolls for your studio, company or school with our marley dance flooring buyer’s guide - broken down by style and by individual marley roll.

Any serious dancer, teacher or choreographer knows that if you want to buy
dance flooring, you want to buy marley. Okay, there are some exceptions, but when it comes down to it, marley is the best option for almost every style.

There are also many misconceptions out there about marley flooring. For example, people tend to think you can’t use it for tap and ballroom. Spoiler alert: you totally can.

But before we get to that, let’s start with the basics.

What is Marley Dance Flooring?

Okay, I’m going to tell you something that blew my mind.

As a dancer, I’ve always danced on what I considered marley floors. Every dancer I know calls them marley floors. I had no idea what they were made out of, but I knew that they looked like and, more importantly, what they felt like.

Then, I did a little research. Turns out that Marley was the brand name of the pioneer in vinyl dance flooring rolls.

It’s like when you talk about Q-tips. Everyone calls them Q-tips. If I said “I need to go to Target for ‘cotton swabs’,” you would look at me like I had 3 heads. But that’s what they are. The Q-Tip brand became so popular that everyone now refers to cotton swabs as Q-tips.

The same thing happened with marley. The original Marley brand was so popular that, these days, all vinyl dance flooring rolls are commonly referred to as marley. In fact, you can’t even purchase the original Marley floors anymore. They’ve been off the market for years.

All that to say:
marley is a vinyl dance flooring roll. I know, I’ve never been short-winded.

Dancers love marley because it gives a safe, controlled surface with
enough slide for turns and enough grip for big jumps and fancy footwork.

Marley Flooring Lingo

So you’re ready to choose your floor, but there’s a lot of lingo. It can get a little overwhelming. Here are the main things you need to know:

Marley floor type: This is where you’ll use your floor. Are you putting it in a dance studio? Taking it on tour? Setting the stage in a theater? This will help you make sure you choose the right floor for your location.

Marley floor installation: No, this isn’t how to install the floor (although, we’ll get to that!); this describes the permanence of the installation. This will also help you decide whether the marley will work for your location.

Floor speed: This term describes how fast you will move on the marley. Each floor has a unique slip-to-grip combination, making it better for particular dance styles. The fast floors don’t work well for ballet, especially pointe shoes. Alternatively, a slow floor won’t work well for barefoot turns - ouch!

Pros of Marley Flooring

Best slip resistance / grip: It is the safest option for turns and jumps. No wood floor will ever be able to compare.

Super-easy installation: Roll, tape, voila!

Price: Compared to dance tiles, marley is a steal!

Maintenance: All marley requires is regular sweeping and mopping with a gentle cleaning solution.

Portable options for touring companies: Dance tiles aren’t the only portable option! There are plenty of marley options that you can pick up and take on the road.

Cons of Marley Flooring

Okay, so nothing is perfect. I am a big fan of marley, but here are a couple things you might want to consider.

Large / bulky: Marley comes in large rolls and they can be bulky and difficult to maneuver on your own. This, however, is no longer an issue once you install the flooring.

Not as portable as tiles: While there are portable touring options, transporting marley is still a process. If you’re using a community space and you need to move your floor daily, marley is probably not the right choice for you.

How to Choose the Right Marley Floor

Here’s where people tend to get confused. There are a lot of options, but don’t stress!
Here are a few main points we suggest taking a look at when making your decision.

Dance style: The most important thing is making sure the marley floor you choose is suitable for all dance styles you plan on using it for. If you’re just using it for one style, we’ll tell you what the best choice is for that style. If you have a multi-use studio, we’ll steer you towards the most versatile marley floor rolls.

Touring needs: Some rolls are portable and great for tours, while some only work in permanent situations. We’ll tell you your installation options for each roll so you can pick one that will work for you.

Price: While we don’t recommend making your decision solely on price, we understand it is a factor. We’ll break down your options by price so you can make a quick, easy decision.

Where to Use Marley Floors

Marley floors are incredibly versatile. In fact, you can install them just about anywhere. Popular uses for marley floors include:

Here’s a quick breakdown of our most popular thicknesses:

Studios

Theaters

Home practice spaces

Portable stages (for touring)

Best Dance Styles for Marley Flooring

Marley is the premier studio dance flooring option. You can use it for virtually any dance style. Here is a list of dance styles we recommend using marley for.

Ballet

Marley is indisputably the best flooring for ballet. The precision and skill of ballet and, in particular, pointe, require a delicate balance of slide and grip to keep dancers safe. We recommend the following vinyl marley flooring rolls for ballet.

Adagio: The Adagio roll is a super versatile medium-fast floor designed for all dance styles.

Adagio Tour: Just like the Adagio, but more portable and a little less durable - best for, well, tours.

Dance Floor*: Dance Floor is a medium-fast floor with extra resiliency. It’s also great for tours.

Performance Floor: Performance Floors are a beautiful option for permanent installations. They’re a medium-slow floor with a little extra grip.

Studio Floor: The Studio Floor is a little more delicate. It is a beautiful medium-speed floor that needs extra protection from street shoes and hard-soled dance shoes.

Jazz

The speed, precision and high-energy movements of jazz require a tough floor with just enough grip to keep you from sliding out of those kicks and turns. Jazz is usually fast moving with big, explosive movements and marley is the best man for that flooring job.

We recommend the following vinyl marley flooring rolls for jazz.

Adagio*: The Adagio roll is a super versatile medium-fast floor designed for all dance styles.

Adagio Tour: Just like the Adagio, but more portable and a little less durable - best for, well, tours.

Dance Floor: Dance Floor is a medium-fast floor with extra resiliency. It’s also great for tours.

Contemporary

With lots of floor work, contractions and choreography that all pull you off your center, often into less than natural positions, you need the right floor to support you.
Marley is the best flooring option for contemporary dance - just make sure you don’t pick one with too much grip if your dancers plan to dance barefoot.

We recommend the following vinyl marley flooring rolls for contemporary dance:

Adagio: The Adagio roll is a super versatile medium-fast floor designed for all dance styles.

Adagio Tour: Just like the Adagio, but more portable and a little less durable - best for, well, tours.

Dance Floor*: Dance Floor is a medium-fast floor with extra resiliency. It’s also great for tours.

Tap

People are often surprised when we recommend marley floors for tap dancing. The truth is, there are some vinyl marley rolls that either cannot hold up to the abuse of tap shoes or don’t produce good sound quality.

However, there are many marley rolls specifically designed to not only hold up to your tap shoes but to produce fantastic sound quality as well.

The following vinyl marley flooring rolls are recommended for tap.

Adagio*: The Adagio roll is a super versatile medium-fast floor designed for all dance styles.

Adagio Tour: Just like the Adagio, but more portable and a little less durable - best for, well, tours.

Hip Hop

Hip hop is pretty low maintenance. You can really do it on any surface (although, I highly, highly recommend sprung subfloors) and in just about any location.

You don’t need marley for hip hop, but
it’s a great choice if you’re also using the room for ballet, jazz, etc. Most marley rolls are great for hip hop, but you want to
steer clear of the most delicate and the highest grip options.

We recommend the following vinyl marley flooring rolls for hip hop.

Dance Floor*: Dance Floor is a medium-fast floor with extra resiliency. It’s also great for tours.

Flamenco

Lots of intense, hard-hitting footwork requires a tough, durable floor. Like tap and ballroom, not all marley floors can hold up to the demands of flamenco. But similarly, there are a few that are up to the task and can help
keep dancers safe with just the right amount of grip.

The following vinyl marley flooring rolls are recommended for flamenco:

Adagio: The Adagio roll is a super versatile, medium-fast floor designed for all dance styles.

Adagio Tour: Just like the Adagio, but more portable and a little less durable - best for, well, tours.

Marley Flooring Options: Roll by Roll

Here’s where people tend to get confused. There are a lot of options, but don’t stress!

Below, you’ll find a description of each roll, which styles it’s best suited for, how portable it is and how much it costs. That way you can decide exactly which marley dance floor roll is best for you.

Adagio Dance Flooring Rolls

The Adagio roll is the
most popular and versatile dance flooring option. If you need a dance flooring option that you can use for ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary and more, the Adagio is where it’s at.

This
medium-fast floor offers just enough slip resistance to keep you safe during ballet without tearing up your feet during contemporary. They’re also specifically designed not to absorb sound. That means they won’t muffle your time steps and wings during tap class.

Adagio Tour Dance Flooring Rolls

Just like our Adagio floor, but a little lighter, a little
more portable. The key word here is “tour.” These rolls are great for tour companies.

The thin, lightweight,
medium-fast speed Adagio Tour rolls are excellent for tap - offering slip control without muffling the sounds. They are also super versatile, making them great for ballet, jazz, contemporary and more.

Arabesque Dance Flooring Rolls

This floor ain’t messin’ around. Arabesque marley rolls are heavy duty, tough and durable enough to hold up to the most intense dance company rehearsals.

Also, this is a fast floor. Triple pirouettes and fouettes will come easy on this turn-friendly marley.
These are the opposite of the Dance Floor rolls - they are thick, heavy and best for permanent and semi-permanent installations. This is not the floor you want to take on the road.

This bad boy is so durable it can handle tap, jazz and even things like Irish step and flamenco.

Roscoleum Dance Flooring Rolls

Roscoleum means business. Your taps, heels and most intense dance moves are no match for this
thick, durable dance flooring. This does make it a little on the slower side for turns, rated as a medium-speed floor.

If your studio gets a ton of traffic and specializes in styles such as
tap, flamenco, Irish step or other hard-soled styles, Roscoleum could be your best bet.

If you’re a more traditional ballet studio, however, this could be overkill.

Wood-Look Marley Dance Floor Rolls

If you’ve ever been to the fancy studios in NYC, chances are you’ve seen those marley rolls that somehow look like hardwood. How do they do that?!

It’s easier than you think! Those floors are nothing more than a traditional vinyl dance flooring roll with a wood look.

And good news; we have them!

Impact Roll - Wood Series Dance Flooring Rolls

These are the most
beautiful, convincing and durable wood-look dance flooring rolls on the market. The Impact Rolls are thick and durable enough to hold up to everything from dance, to gym flooring and more.

Our impact rolls are like attaching a vinyl marley roll to a 5mm rubber underlayment. These can be especially helpful if you don’t have a sprung subfloor.

Because they are thicker,
we don’t recommend them for tap - they won’t produce the best sounds. These rolls are
best for ballet, jazz, contemporary, hip hop and aerobics.

The Best Subfloor for Marley Flooring

All you really need for your subfloor is a clean, flat, level surface.
That being said,
we very strongly encourage you to think about a sprung floor subfloor or home dance subfloor. I know, I know, it’s an extra expense, but it is so worth it.

Whether you’re a studio, school or professional company, the last thing you want is injured dancers. And the best way to
prevent injuries is to start with a dance subfloor.

The subfloor
absorbs and distributes the dancer’s weight, which allows dancers to continue to jump, leap and roll with a lower risk of injury.

Marley Flooring Durability / Longevity

All of our marley rolls are specifically designed to hold up to years and years of dancing of all levels. In fact, most of them boast at least a 5-year warranty, with our wood-look options offering as many as 10 years.

These rolls are in it for the long haul.

Marley Flooring Installation

Each dance flooring roll is a little different.
Each of our marley dance floor rolls is rated for either permanent, semi-permanent or temporary installation. Just check the manufacturer's specifications and follow the direction for your desired installation.

Traditionally, you can easily install marley dance rolls yourself by laying rolls flat and using vinyl tape over the seams. Of course, we always recommend checking the product specifications before installation.

For best results,
loose lay your marley rolls 24-48 hours in advance to allow them to fully relax.
Leave a 1/16”-1/8” gap between rolls (but no more - you don’t want to have full-on cracks in your floor!) to allow for expansion and contraction. We also recommend topping them off with a matching vinyl floor tape.

Marley Flooring Maintenance

No matter how many signs you put up that read “No shoes in the dance studio,” you know people are gonna walk in with their shoes and track in outside dirt and grime all over your beautiful floor. I know, it is so frustrating!

The best way to combat how difficult it is to keep the outside dirt away is to choose a dance floor that is easy to take care of. You’re going to have to end up cleaning it regularly, so you don’t want a floor that requires a big song and dance (pun intended).

The good news is all of our marley dance flooring options are
super easy to clean and maintain. The just require sweeping/vacuuming and a damp mop with a mild cleaning solution.

If you end up with scratches that really bug you, you can give it a more careful scrub. But, generally speaking, it’s really just as easy as taking care of any home floor. Just make sure to clean up spills right away and you’ll be good to go!